Underground Railroad

IC Radio’s Lia Han and Kate Agathos catch up with Underground Railroad after their show in Camden and talk serious music. Originally formed in France, this trio of Marion Andrau, Raphael Mura and JB Ganviet have relocated to London to follow the Indie-dream; wear black, hang out in the East and eat salt beef bagels. Oh, and making some sweet sweet music along the way. And perhaps opening for Dinosaur Jr., wasn’t so bad either.

Underground Railroad are supporting some Australian band tonight. I forget the name because I was late to the gig but did manage to secure the all important 2 song rule (give any band two songs and that’s enough to make up your mind about how ear-rapingly shite they are). The place is full of very jolly south of the equator Australians much like a Friday night at Walkabout in Fulham and it’s hard to guess why Underground Railroad are supporting a band which sounds like Bon Jovi had a tongue-jacuzzi with ZZ Top (with the non-bearded one with the beard in his name sat on the side, juzzing himself out). Me and Kate make our way backstage, uttering the classic ‘OOOOOH GIGGLE GIGGLE backstage!’ like we are about to chug some Motley Crue spunk, and thrust our laminated backstage passes at any passer-by. Ha, two pass words in one sentence, whatdyathunkit.

Underground Railroad certainly play a spectacular show; not afraid to put themselves literally on the stage, they exude energy and an old skool punk attitude. Playing in London is hardly daunting for these guys anymore, they claim to be practically Londoners after re-locating 3 years ago, and have firmly embraced the classic Londoner compass-divide; declaring their love for the East because it’s too expensive to go anywhere on the tube and they love hanging out in Shoreditch and Brick Lane. The subject of Brick Lane Salt Beef Bagels comes up, most likely instigated by me because it literally is the perfect sandwich with meat:carbohydrate ratio (fyi: 2:1), and we have a mini-circle-time-bonding-sess by agreeing that out of the two bagel shops, it’s the first one as you turn into Brick Lane that totally pwns over the other. They’ve had a wealth of shows in London too, all over the shop; Koko, White Heat, Luminare, Cargo and Buffalo bar, just to name a few (these venues sound like Wicca Anime characters… except Cargo, maybe he can be the Mr T of the group, non?). But do they miss France? It’s very different Marion remarks, but there are more bands in London. ‘It’s boiling here, with so much activity; everyone seems to be in a band. There’s competition in France too but we know everyone so you can build a scene really quickly. In London there are still lots of bands we like but we haven’t met yet’.

Their new album Sticks and Stones was produced by John Goodmanson, of Death Cab and Cutie fame, and delivers on some noisey impact. Obvious bumming of Jesus Mary Chain and Velvet Underground, although anything with a bit of avant-garde noise will normally invoke those references like a sharte gone right. But I am pleased to report some pop! Yes! Pop! Jingly jangly catchy swiftly monkey verses! Good fashioned good music.
On why the lyrics are in English, the band delve into the ins and outs of the French dialect, commenting on the fact that the ‘hu-urgh’ sound one makes is not as suited to rock music than say, rap. There is a brief spell of the teaching of French culture as they tell us that they call what I assume we know as scat singing, ‘yoghurt’. Creamy and full of wonderful and full of bifidis regularis? Hmm. But English or French, the sound of the album does little to offend the ears, which explains why they gelled so nicely into the European Nada Surf tour. As they recall, despite the differences between the bands, the fans just ‘got it’. They aspire to support bands in different genres, with the names Goldfrapp, The Liars and Deerhoof mentioned in passing.

For a band who have been together 5 years, growing up in a small suburb in Paris, and meeting in what they seem to describe as the only studio in town (because it was cheap at 100 Euros a year), they all seem so fresh and not at all living the stagnant band life so many fall into. Yes, the beginning was hard and they certainly took moving to London, ‘we didn’t know anyone in London and were living in Whitechapel and took the 1st room we could get, sending demos to clubs, promoters, anyone’ but they’ve done well for themselves, and as they describe it, London is a platform which has brought them immense opportunities here and abroad.

Lia